Esprit, L'.
Journal Spiritualiste.
1882--1882 Weekly
Paris, France.
Language: French.
Editor: J. de Coradda, Alphonse Momas.
1/1, April 30, 1882-1/7, June 11, 1882.
15 francs a year, 8 pp.

This was a journal that was largely ignored during its existence (the Medium and Daybreak, May 19, 1882, condescendingly noted that it was well printed and contained a thoughtful article on religion) and has long been forgotten. It was "spiritualist" in the sense that it centered around the writing medium "Erdnaxelag" (who also wrote for Annali dello spiritismo in Italia), and non-Kardecist--although Erdnaxelag did commit the unpardonable offense of mediating Kardec himself, along with the spirits of Francis de Salles, St. Paul, St. Augustine, and a disciple of Jesus. If the journal had a position, it was support for the current enthusiasms for "vitalisme" and the "force vitale" in opposition to pure materialism, but it suffered from a dearth of material. Each issue begged contributions from men of good will desirous of showing the errors of materialism, but few seem to have appeared. There were contributions by S. Surgent, Eugene Bonnemere, "Parkos," M. Cleryane, Dr. Latigo, but by the last issues the journal was reduced to Momas's long novelette "Les Aventures de Rocambole apres sa mort," and a similar post-mortem tale by Bonnemere. Momas (1846-1933) was a provincial functionary and later author of Theosophical tracts, but he is best remembered as one of the most prominent pornographers of the era under a variety of pseudonyms like "Fuckwell." BNF.